It has been thirty-five years since Roe v. Wade, but the debate still rages. In fact the right to choose has been slowly eroded away ever since that landmark decision. The case against choice was argued by Dallas, Texas District Attorney Henry Wade, the same District Attorney who legacy includes seventeen murder convictions that have been overturned and those accused have exonerated because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Now, thirty five-years latter there are an ever growing number of pieces of legislation designed to not only criminalize abortion, but to strip women of their basic rights to health care.
A recent ruling in South Dakota has mandated that doctors must tell the patient before the abortion that they “will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being.”
The Department of Health and Human Services is attempting to broaden the definitions of abortion to include forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs, and allowing healthcare professionals to refuse to provide contraception to women that may request it.
The debate has local connections. The 40 Days for Life campaign was started in the Brazos Valley by the Coalition for Life, and anti-choice organization. The next 40 Days for Life will be taking place from September 24th through November 2nd, ending the Sunday before Election Day.
What those that define themselves as “pro-life” do not understand is that those that are Pro-Choice are not pro-abortion. Abortion is a tragedy, and it should be legal and it should be safe.
Choice matters because this is not just about abortion, but about the health of women and the right of each citizen to choose what they believe is ethical and responsible.
Those that stand in front of the Planned Parenthood on East 29th Street in Bryan, Texas just blocks away from the local Coalition for Life offices only focus on the “unborn.” Anti-choice activist priorities are not the health of women, and not the repercussions on women when abortion is made illegal. They ignore that places like Planned Parenthood are more than abortion clinics but places for health care for women that may not be able to afford it otherwise, and they ignore that medical abortions represent about 3% of its total services.
An administration that states that “the best health care decisions are made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors,” but then focuses on passing legislation to take the choice away from the patients and their doctors. Not to mention ignoring comprehensive sex education and granting review waivers for grants to states that provide abstinence-only sex education programs that had no effect on the sexual abstinence of youth.
This debate is about more than abortion, this debate is about choice and the consequences when choice is restricted, and the ramifications are serious. The sides in this debate are not pro-life and pro-abortion, they are Pro-Choice and anti-choice.
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